Applies to Sophos Home for macOS
What's happening
As Apple releases new versions of the macOS operating system for Mac computers, Sophos Home may require additional steps to continue properly protecting your system. These necessary actions are presented to users as "Action Required" messages within the Sophos Home app.
The specific message content will tell you exactly what action needs to be taken.
What to do
This article will cover the different "Action Required" messages you may see, and explain what you need to do about each one.
Please look at the message Sophos Home is displaying on your Mac, and then find the matching scenario below to see the steps you should take.
Action Required - Sophos Home requires a configuration update
This message appears in 2 scenarios:
Scenario 1 - When the Network Proxy is not allowed upon prompting
Scenario 2 - When macOS doesn't enable the network filters, and the Continue button does not work
Scenario 1 - If the network Proxy was not initially allowed
- Click the Continue button
- Click allow when the Proxy popup comes up
If the problems persist:
- Reboot your Mac
- Click Allow when re-prompted to allow the Network Proxy
- For additional information, please see SophosWebNetworkExtension Would Like to Add Proxy Configurations
Scenario 2 - macOS didn't enable Network Filters
In this case, despite allowing everything, macOS does not properly enable the Filters. To fix this, we will manually enable the Filters
- Click on Apple > System Settings> Network
- Click on Filters
- Click on each Sophos filter and select Enable
- Enter your Mac's password when prompted
Video steps:
Action Required - You need to change your "Security & Privacy" settings
This message appears on new installations of Sophos Home, or after a major update is applied to macOS.
To address it, follow these steps:
- Click on Open "Security & Privacy"
- OR Click on the Apple > System Preferences> Security & Privacy
- Click on Details...or Allow as presented
- Click on the sliders/checkmarks to allow the 2 Sophos Home extensions
- Restart your Mac to allow the antivirus to reload.
Images and additional steps can be found here: Check if system extensions need to be allowed
If the message persists after following the steps, refer to: Action Required! appears on the shield
If you are running Sonoma macOS you might need to check out Welcome to Sophos screen keeps popping up in Sonoma
Action Required - You need to change your "Login Items & Extensions" settings...
This message appears on new Sophos Home installations OR upgrades on macOS Sequoia.
To address it, follow these steps:
- Click on the Open "Login Items & Extensions" button , or click on Apple menu > Settings and search for Login Items & Extensions
- Scroll down to Endpoint Security Extensions
- Click on the "i" and enable the SophosScanD.app slider
- Enter your Mac's password and click Done
- Repeat the steps for Network Extension > Sophos Network Extension
- Make sure to Allow the Sophos Home Network Extension Filter when prompted.
- When done, the shield should show protected shortly after (If you haven't completed the Welcome to Sophos message, follow Welcome to Sophos Screen processing )
Action required-Almost done... Create your account
The message "Action Required - Almost done... Create your account" means that Sophos Home was not linked to an account when it was installed on your computer.
To address it, follow these steps
- If you're a New User or if you don't have a Sophos Home account yet, you'll need to create one. Just follow the prompts to set up your new account.
- If you already have a have a Sophos Home account, you'll need to reinstall the Sophos Home software using the installer downloaded from your existing account. See How to reinstall Sophos Home
Find more information on creating Sophos Home accounts here
Related information
- Support for macOS 15 Sequoia
- macOS Monterey, Ventura, Sonoma -Troubleshooting issues
- Sophos Home macOS Ventura Support